Stream Twenty-Three
The twenty-third stream of Dungeons & DragonHat took place on Saturday, 15 February 2014, and lasted approximately three hours, 30 minutes. *Entire stream on Twitch Events Waking up At 4 am, Leokul wakes up and decides to get back the two gold pieces Ignitus tricked him out of the night before. He has no luck picking the lock of Ignitus's door, so wanders around town, noticing a murder of crows sat atop the Church of Boccob, watching his every move. He turns around, and when he looks back at them, they've vanished. He goes back to bed. At 7.30 am, Tossur wakes up and finds Gullespie clinging to the underside of his bed. Gull is startled to be woken, swiping at Tossur. When Tossur asks him what's wrong, he says he was terrified of something last night, but can't remember what. Tossur can't spot anything worrying in his house, but notices the vole hole has been repaired and the message he previously noticed etched into the wood above his door says "BROOKS WAS HERE". He makes porrige for himself and Gull. Ana wakes and searches for food in her cupboards, purifying anything she found to be spoilt, but notices that her reflection in the window has about half a second's delay. She can't see anything unusual aronud the window or off in the forest, but when she focuses on her reflection again, it is in sync with her. She picks up the staff found on Mug Ruith and heads out to the Temple of St Cuthbert. Leokul again tries to break into Ignitus's house, this time successfully, and notices a set of footprints leading in through Ignitus's front door... although the prints are cut off under where the door rests shut. Leokul sneaks up to Ignitus's room and grabs his purse, but Ignitus hears him, turns around and tries to grab him. Leokul tumbles away, removes two gold pieces from the purse and throws it back at Ignitus in one motion, before running outside and to the bakery, where he buys two breakfast rolls, one for himself and one for Ignitus. Before work Tossur goes to the carpenter's to pay for his work, initially alarmed at the price of two gold pieces until he sees the letter blocks handed to him. He pays and leaves, notices Leokul outside the bakery and walks over. Leokul is facing away, and when Tossur speaks to him, Leokul drops into a roll and throws his half-eaten roll at Tossur, which Gullespie catches and holds in his mouth. Tossur escorts Leokul to the town hall, where they're joined by Ignitus. Mayor John instructs Tossur to map the Grim Forest, prompting Leokul to decide he'd prefer to go back to work than return there, so he convinces Ignitus that they should go directly to the construction site of the storage building. Tossur asks John to confirm he wants him to go into the forest, but John clarifies that he only needs the edges of the forest to be mapped. Tossur agrees to do this and decides to head to Ana's house, but Ana is already walking towards him. When she sees Tossur, Ana changes her course to greet him. Tossur asks if she'll accompany him on his mapping trip, which she agrees to if they keep a distance from the treeline, and says she's going first to talk to Ezekiel about her staff because she's worried it might carry some of Ruith's taint. Tossur says he'll go with her, because he's wondering the same thing about his Ring of Protection, and has been carrying it in his spell component pouch, but recalls that Leokul put his on immediately upon receiving it. Temple of St Cuthbert Ana and Tossur head into the Temple of St Cuthbert, Tossur instructing Gullespie to wait for them on top of the town hall. They find Ezekiel, who tells them that if any items had absorbed Ruith's taint, they would have degraded and fallen apart by now. Tossur asks if they should come to him if their new possessions start degrading, but he says that if that's the case, the items will already have helped them more than he could. He explains that items can absorb taint that would otherwise affect their holders, not become corrupt from use by tainted individuals. This satisfies Ana and Tossur who leave. When they leave the temple, they see that Gull is talking to a murder of crows on top of town hall, but Tossur realizes he isn't getting an empathic sense from him, and neither of them can hear any sound coming from any of the birds. Ana tries to Detect Magic, but can't see anything in Gullespie other than his familial bond with Tossur, and can't see anything in the surroundings that would be unusual for a town of spellcasters. The crows caw loudly and scatter, and Gull returns to Tossur claiming no memory of other birds. Tossur tells Gull to wait with Ana while he returns into the temple and ask Ezekial about magics that could block or restore memory. Ezekiel knows of none and suggests Tossur speaks to arcane spellcasters like Mayor John or Father Isiah. Tossur tells Ana what happened with Gullespie this morning and says he's been worried about these moments of missing memory since they defeated Mug Ruith. Ana says she knows of a few diseases that affect the avian mind, although none that affect memory specifically. She suggests she uses her new staff to heal Gullespie, but Tossur says he'd like first to speak to Isiah, so they go to the Church of Boccob. Church of Boccob Father Isiah answers the door with a bottle of wine in his hand, and Tossur asks him if he knows of any magic that blocks or restores memory, which Isiah answers by saying that only the most powerful spellcasters can do that. Noticing that Tossur has fallen silent, Ana asks if the father can detect disease in animals, which he says he could if he prepared those spells that day. He asks if they want him to do that, and Tossur says it's not urgent if he has other matters to attend to today, prompting Isiah to hide the bottle of wine behind his back, but Tossur notices. Isiah asks what this is all in regards to, and Tossur explains that Gullespie has been losing moments of his memory: being scared of something in the night, speaking to crows atop town hall, possibly resurrecting Ignitus. Upon hearing about crows, Isiah grows concerned, noting that there are no crows on the island as far as he is aware, and recalling that appearances of crows are often an omen of bad things. Ana realizes this is true, crows can't have flown all the way to Marshall's Ghost, and rebukes Tossur's suggestion that they stowed away on ships. Tossur asks the father what the appearance of rocs signifies, and Isiah replies that they're seen so infrequently that a number of different meanings are ascribed to them, but they typically signify destiny and great change. Tossur and Ana thank him and head to the forest where they walk around its edge at a distance of about 25 feet. Building site At the building site, Ignitus notices that a piece of rope he needs to use has grown leaves and thorns. He calls Leokul over to confirm this is the case. He shrugs it off as being unimpressive and unthreatening compared to previous magic they've encountered. Later, while Leokul is getting told off by Arn, Iginuts sees Tossur and Ana heading towards the forest. Fearing something must be wrong, he runs over to ask them what they're doing, but is relieved to learn the truth. He warns them not to enter the forest, which Ana replies to snarkily saying she's a druid. Tossur tries to diffuse the situation by thanking Ignitus for his concern, and Ignitus returns to work. Explosions Later, Ignitus hears what sounds like loud explosions off to the west. He runs to the other side of Amsun as many of its residents gather in the courtyard confused. Running all the way up to the river he sees bursting lights on the horizon and has a vision of Lamburg coming under attack from INS Velenbaug. He immediately runs back through town to get Ana and Tossur, who by now have mapped about 85% of the forest's edge. Ana can hear the explosions clearly now that Ignitus has made her listen for them, but seriously doubts he could see all the way to Lamburg. Tossur can't hear anything but suggests they go and investigate, as they've all had hallucinations on the island before. Ignitus runs back to the town hall, where Mayor John is joined by two other characters, but is seemingly talking to many others unseen. He confirms what Ignitus saw, saying that ships and civilians are being fired upon. Tossur, not believing what Ignitus said, asks Ana about what plants smell nice, saying he'd like to get into candle-crafting. Ana is at first taken aback by the off-topic question, but says she's aware of quite a few species that she thinks might be good for such a purpose, several of which she's seen on the island. Tossur says he's going to go flower picking. Ana tries to shake off mental images of the stereotypical woodland elf and offers to use her Detect Plants spell to help him. Ignitus impatiently sees them slowly enter the courtyard where they finally hear the explosions clearly and see the courtyard still filling with growingly worried residents. When they're finally on the west side of Amsun they see the flickering lights on the horizon, although Tossur initially has trouble locating the right direction in which to look. While Ana and Ignitus exchange words of fear and anger, Tossur puts on his Ring of Protection. Ignitus runs back to the town hall, telling them to keep the crowd from panicking. Tossur looks to make sure the explosions aren't getting closer. Ana is unsure what they can do to help. Tossur suggests they stop panicking residents from running into the Grim Forest, but they don't see anyone heading that way. Tossur suggests they ask Mayor John what to tell the crowd, and they head to town hall, but as they get there Ignitus is pushed out and the mayor addresses the crowd. He announces that the Mannish Empire has declared war on Arcania and Lamburg has come under attack. He says that as many volunteers as possible need to go there immediately to help the injured and the trapped. Ignitus puts his hand up immediately. Ana looks to Tossur. Tossur looks at the ground in deep thought, looks up and sees Ignitus and other residents with his hands raised, and raises his also. After seeing him raise his hand, and Ezekiel approaching town hall with a number of monks, Ana also raises her hand to volunteer. Memorable quotes Mayor John addresses Amsun Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great sadness and unfortunate state that I must declare, it seems the Mannish Empire has declared war on Arcania. We need any volunteers willing to go to Lamburg right now where we are presently under attack to help the injured and the trapped. References Ignitus has picked up on a number of children's tales told in the school playground, taking particular note of those a little more interesting than the usual child-eating teacher fare. *A bear with a melted face wanders into town to curse anyone it finds. The only way to protect yourself is to place a bowl of water outside your house, because it hates the sight of its own reflection. *Every full moon, faces appear in the Grim Forest looking towards the town. Don't look at them, or they'll drag you into the forest! It's worth noting that Amsun is such a young town that there hasn't actually been a full moon since it was founded. *If you go into the Grim Forest alone, skeletal hands will grab at you. Don't bring anything home from the forest, or it will transform into skeletal hands at night and come to get you! *A large black dog sits and stares at the giant stone head outside town for hours on end. Not too disconcerting until you notice it has two shadows. sss3